Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to genetically engineered microorganisms for biological oxidation of hydrocarbons including production of alcohols from alkanes or epoxides from alkenes, such as methanol from methane, and methods and systems for oxidation of hydrocarbons.
Description of the Related Art
Unconventional gas is a collective term used to describe tight gas sands, gas shales, gas hydrates, and coal bed methane. Methane is the principal component of natural gas (˜75%), with other constituents, including ethane, propane, butane (˜20%), smaller quantities of CO2, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen sulphide, and trace amounts of rare gases. These other constituents are separated from methane to produce sales grade natural gas. Unconventional gas is the same substance as “conventional” natural gas; it is the particular characteristics of the gas reservoirs that lead to its “unconventional” name. While conventional natural gas can be exploited without any special well completions, most unconventional gas production requires rock fracturing to allow the gas to escape the rock through the wellbore to the surface. Unconventional gas deposits make up an increasing proportion of natural gas left to be extracted in North America.
The abundance of cheap natural gas resources presents an opportunity for using methane-based fuels and chemicals, thus reducing reliance on petroleum imports. However, traditional catalytic processes for converting natural gas into higher value products are costly and have numerous processing requirements, environmental conditions (e.g., high pressure and temperature), and safety concerns. While bioconversion approaches provide a potential alternative, previous strategies, such as using native methanotrophic bacteria to produce methanol from methane, provide insufficient process yields and low efficiency for commercial use.
In view of the limitations associated with conversion of methane and other components of natural gas into higher value fuels and chemicals, there is clearly a need in the art for new methods which are safe, efficient, specific, environmentally clean, and cost-effective. The present invention addresses this problem by providing efficient and cost-effective methods for biosynthetic production of methanol and other alcohol products from alkanes using genetically engineered microorganisms. Furthermore, the biocatalyst for alkane oxidation is also capable of converting alkene substrates to epoxides, a reaction which is currently underserved by chemical catalysis methods.